When pipetting the PCR reaction, all necessary components, i.e. reagents, can be added to the reaction tube one by one, or preferably by first combining at least some of them as a master mix followed by dividing this mixture to multiple samples. One of the components that usually must be added separately is the sample under study. The number of samples, tubes or sample wells in a microtiter plate can be hundreds or even thousands per setup.
Adding reagents correctly, i.e. in the right order and amount, is crucial for obtaining valid results not only in PCR but also in many other (bio)chemical reactions. Failed experiments result in loss of time and money. Economical importance can be huge. This is because of waste of ingredients, plastic ware and personnel working hours. Moreover, delays in obtaining the results of the experiments may be significant. There have been various solutions to this well-known problem.
There are mechanical solutions to the problem. The art acknowledges various automated pipetting robots, multichannel pipettes and guidance systems (e.g. Finnzymes Piko® Light Plate, BioTx Well Aware™) used with sample tubes and plates.
For several years there have also been available PCR master mixes or buffers that contain some visible dye to help pipeting and tracking of electrophoresis runs. These mixes typically also have some component to increase density of the solution to help in electrophoresis gel loading.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,964 discloses a product using a pipetting aid dye which is also used as a gel loading and tracking dye. The colorant has been incorporated with the polymerase, which helps the user to see whether the polymerase has been pipetted to the PCR mix or master mix. A similar product is BioLine Accuzyme Red.
USB Corporation's RubyTaq features a polymerase including a mixture of two dyes which are separated during the agarose gel run: magenta (runs between 500 bp [2% gels] and 1500 bp [0.8% gels]) and yellow (runs less than 10 bp).
Fermentas and Promega have also added a colorant to the enzyme reaction buffer. Fermentas' DreamTaq™ Green reaction buffer can be seen as green, but the color separates into a blue and yellow bands during gel electrophoresis. Promega GoTaq and GoTaq Green Mastermix behave similarly.
There are also products available where the dye added to the polymerase is not intended to help in the electrophoresis phase. Examples include ABgene Red® Hot.
NEB provides a product (Crimson Taq) featuring a dye Acid red added to the DNA polymerase reaction buffer. The product also uses 6% dextran as a density enhancer.
Qiagen's CoralLoad dye is available both as a concentrate in a separate tube, for being added to an uncolored master mix, and also as an optional ready-made 10×PCR buffer. It contains two gel tracking dyes (orange and red).
KR 2002/0045167 discloses freeze-dried PCR mixes containing a colorant to confirm dissolution of the PCR components. U.S. Pat. No. 6,153,412 discloses also freeze-died reaction mixtures which are used for identifying the existence of a lyophilized PCR reagent and to ensure complete mixing of the PCR reagent and the test sample. U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,339, on the other hand, discloses the use of a dye in a hot start wax, which does not dissolve into the reaction mixture.
Absolute Blue QPCR Master Mix contains an inert blue dye to ease pipetting in reaction set-up.
Also WO 2007/088506 discloses a dyed master mix.
Applied biosystems has ROX passive reference dye included in their qPCR products. The purpose of the dye is to provide a steady fluorescence level which can be used to normalize against any non PCR related fluorescence variation between the different reactions and in one sample during a reaction. The method is also suggested to normalize at least partly against deviations in pipetting accuracy.
All but the three last ones of the products mentioned above are suggested to be used only in traditional end point PCR. In addition to the colorants, they typically contain a density enhancer to get the sample material into the bottom of the gel wells (see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,964). Without the density enhancer, samples would disperse into the surrounding liquid.
Colorants used in end-point PCR are generally not compatible with quantitative PCR (qPCR). This is usually because they prevent real-time optical measurements of the ongoing reaction. In particular, the dyes typically have a spectrum which overlaps with the detection wavelengths of qPCR fluorescence or their absorbance is too high. General requirements for the dyes used include non-inhibitory effect on the PCR reaction or stability in the reaction pH.
An additional disadvantage of the abovementioned solutions in which the dye is provided in the master mix or in the polymerase is that they are not able to provide help for pipetting the samples (i.e. in PCR the material to be amplified). Sample pipetting is, however, the step where keeping track of the process is most important—and most difficult.
Neither the various mechanical systems available cannot solve the problem entirely. They are expensive and pipetting errors cannot always be seen visually mainly because of volume differences, which means the error might not be detected until after obtaining failed results.
Thus, there is a need for enhanced pipetting aids. In particular, there is a need for such pipetting aids which can be applied also for the sample pipetting phase.